Judge annuls night-time private house raid
Jail sentence overturned to fine
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 17: In a notable judicial ruling, the Criminal Court of Cassation headed by Judge Abdullah Jassim Al-Abdullah annulled the inspection procedures that the investigation officer had conducted in a house during night time, which was in violation of the search warrant issued by the Public Prosecution, reports Aljarida daily.
In the merits of its ruling, the court stated that the warrant issued to the officer did not include the possibility of searching at night, which was a matter that should have been referred to by the warrant, especially since searches at night are only permissible when necessary.
Also, the court considered the ruling of the Court of Appeals as invalid due to its issuance in the absence of the defendant, citing that the notification procedure was not fully and properly implemented.
According to the case file, the Public Prosecution charged the two defendants with possession of narcotic substances with intent to consume, and possession of weapons and ammunition which is in violation of the provisions of the relevant law.
The Court of First Instance had s e nt e nced one of the accused to five-year imprisonment with hard labor, and acquitted the other from all charges lev
eled against him.
Verdict
overturned:
The Court of Appeals overturned the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance, which had sentenced a supervisor, a production manager and the managing director of Kuwait TV (KTV 3) channel to four-year imprisonment with hard labor, payment of KD 1,000 for suspending the execution of the verdict, and the return of all the money they had acquired fraudulently. The court instead imposed a fine of KD 3,000 on the production manager, and KD 2,000 each on the other two defendants.
According to the case file, they were accused of embezzling funds belonging to the Ministry of Information through forgery of attendance documents despite being outside the country and receiving full salary.
The Public Prosecution had charged the production manager of the KTV 3 channel with receiving about KD 42,000 fraudulently during the period from March 13, 2008 to February 15, 2018. It also charged all the three defendants of facilitating salary increment for the production manager, and forging documents related to attendance and appraisals to prove the production manager had been at his workstation throughout the aforementioned period.